As an educator, I’ve developed ideas and some have proven to be
successful and others fell flat on their faces.
I am nervous that my current GAME plan is in the process of completing a
graceful swan dive. I need to make some changes in order for any further
progress to be made.
In my previous post I reported that I completed the initial
building of a website for my program. I
created the website using weebly. It
took hours. My plan was to have each of
my students create a weebly as well. I
would then link each of their blogs to the class site. This would broadcast our classroom activities
to the community. I also reported that
weebly is blocked on my district’s server.
This is going to be the death of my plan.
Here is the weebly I created:
I placed a request for weebly to be unblocked in August BEFORE school
started. One of our Engineering teachers
also asked for the site to be unblocked.
She hopes to use it as an online portfolio like I do. Unfortunately, the site is still blocked. Two months later. Students cannot access it at school. I’ve made multiple attempts to get the site
unblocked. My school’s Instructional
Technology Specialist also made several attempts to contact the district. No changes have been made. This causes frustration because this site is
what was recommended by other broadcast journalism teachers in the nation. They gave me the suggestions on our
listserv. A few also suggested
wordpress, but this requires a server to run.
This is not available to me.
So, I thought I would scrap weebly and just trash the website I spent
hours on. I tried to look for other
alternatives. I haven’t found any. I cannot find an easy to use website creator
that also works well with video. To say
I am frustrated is an understatement. My
entire GAME plan hinges on a website. Do
any of you have ideas?
So, here I sit under a pile of posters I designed and printed
using QR codes for the new website, students who are eager to create websites,
and no way to move forward. My students
are still completing self-assessments using Google Drive. I just wish they were able to post them
online for the community.
Any website suggestions? I want it to look professional with an option to blog and post videos. Essentially an online portfolio.
Hi, A.J., I know how it feels to work feverishly on something only to find that in the end, you can't use it! Your passion for your project is apparent. I hope I can maybe suggest a few things that you haven't tried that may help.
ReplyDeleteHave you considered using a Learning Management System (LMS) like Schoology (www.schoology.com)? My campus has recently started Blended Learning, and we all use Schoology. It is absolutely free, and it's extremely user friendly. The best part is that students can collaborate online anytime, and I can add anything to it. You can post videos, issue assignments, attach files, and much more.
My friend also has a class website she created using SchoolRack (www.schoolrack.com). It is also free, and it is set up strictly for education, so there are lots of features like classroom portals, places for parents and students to communicate, online discussion groups, and several other really useful teacher features. I haven't used it myself, but I've been playing around on it this morning, and it seems like a great option. Not sure if that website is already permitted through your school server, but it may be worth a shot.
Lastly, have you used Smore (www.smore.com)? Smore is really a place to create online flyers, but there is so much more you can do. You can add video and photograph and you can use all kinds of fonts and graphics on the "flyer." But the best part is that the flyer is a living document, so you can your students can get into it anytime to add to it or change information.
Hope some of that info helps you "win the GAME!" :)
Tina
A.J.,
ReplyDeleteIsn't it amazing how technology, which by definition is supposed to make our lives easier, can be more of a pain and hindrance than anything else? I'm amazed that your IT at Summerville isn't able to unblock weebly. It's amazing to believe, but I just not realized that you work at SHS. Up until this year, I was working at Ashley Ridge (for the past three years). I understand your issues with the network blocks and blanket proxy. I was in talks with Jeff Plane about having different log ins: a Teacher, Student, and guest log in proxy that gave teachers more options (like youtube) and could track student activity. Wishful thinking...
I know they are at ARHS, but perhaps you could shoot Jeff Plane or Joe Pace (the ARHS IT specialist) an email and see if they can help with the problem as well.
So, worst case scenario - weebly will forever be blocked. Do enough of your students have computers at home to create and develop their own websites? Are you willing to let students use a backdoor proxy like ultrasurf in order to access this website?
Good luck!
-Tom
Tom,
DeleteIt is a small world. Thanks for the information. Yesterday, I had another conversation with our IT and she said that the district is still working through their new policy they added this year. She is hoping to have it resolved by Christmas. haha. Also, teachers do have a login to get past the filter; unfortunately, students do not have access. I may just have them build their sites outside of school until it is resolved.
A.J.
DeleteI'm curious. Are teachers involved in this process that your district is going through to develop the new policy? In our school, teachers were heavily involved in helping to create our school's policy. It gave the administrators and school board extra information to make the best decisions. Could you request to be on this committee?
Veronica